Wednesday, December 7
MILITARY FLIES OVER 10 MILLION POUNDS OF AID, TREATS 5000TH PATIENT IN PAK QUAKE RELIEF
And it ain't over yet.
| December 5, 2005 U.S. Disaster Assistance Center Pakistan – U.S. military aviation and medical units both exceeded a 5,000 milestone in the last two days here while supporting Pakistani-led earthquake relief efforts. U.S. helicopters reached the first milestone on Dec. 3 when the total aid they have delivered topped more than 5,000 tons. The second milestone was reached by the U.S. hospital in Muzaffarabad when the 5,000th patient walked through their doors on Dec.4. Approximately 300 U.S. Army soldiers and 16 CH-47 Chinook helicopters comprise Task Force Eagle which took over the aviation mission of delivering relief aid here on Nov. 4 from a previous task force that returned to Afghanistan. The U.S. began flying humanitarian aid on Oct. 11 - three days after the 7.6 magnitude earthquake devastated the Kashmir and Northwest Frontier Provinces. The 212th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital is manned by approximately 200 U.S. Army soldiers and began seeing patients on Oct. 25. The facility is capable of performing simultaneous surgeries and has a capacity of 24 intensive care unit beds with 60 additional beds for patients needing less in-patient monitoring. Task Force Eagle and the 212th MASH make up a portion of the nearly 1,000 U.S. military members assigned to the Disaster Assistance Center Pakistan to provide aviation, medical and engineering support to the Government of Pakistan. |
